Kyle Gasaway

Health care policy is often disconnected from patients, especially cancer patients. Medicare and Medicaid policy can impact a family’s ability to afford chemotherapy and have an impact not only on the cancer patient but on the entire family. If the price of cancer medications is so high that people can’t afford to put food on the table, then health care policy is not working for patients.

This week the Cancer Support Community, along with six other leading cancer organizations, hosted the Cancer Moonshot: One Year Later, an event continuing the momentum of the Cancer Moonshot Initiative. The initiative works to increase research funding and accelerate cancer discoveries. Researchers, oncologists, care providers, philanthropists, data and tech experts, advocates, patients and survivors all work together toward the Moonshot goal: to make a decade’s worth of advances in cancer prevention, diagnosis, treatment, and care in just five years.

Every June, LGBTQ+ pride month is celebrated with parades and marches across the country.Studies have shown that the LGBTQ+ community has a higher risk of being diagnosed with certain cancers than non-LGBTQ people. Education around being LGBTQ+ and a cancer patient is growing to support the LGBTQ+ cancer community.

As members of the U.S. Senate take time during the Memorial recess to consider the American Health Care Act (AHCA), advocates should take a moment to speak out about what this legislation might mean for their healthcare coverage and access to care.